The Buddhist monastery known as Phugtal Gompa was built around a cave system on the sheer cliff of a Himalayan mountain in northern India. The monastery was founded around 1100 CE, although the structure itself took an awful long time to build. Now it is a tourist attraction, 3800 feet up the cliff, and still houses around 70 monks.

On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a few minutes after her death.

The photo ran a couple of weeks later in Life magazine accompanied by the following caption:

On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. 'He is much better off without me ... I wouldn't make a good wife for anybody,' ... Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale's death Wiles got this picture of death's violence and its composure.

"Mind-Blowing Photo" Thread...

From Outside Magazine:
To capture 2,000 triathletes swimming across Kailua Bay at October’s Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, Donald Miralle needed to get above the action. “It’s the only way to show the madness of that mass start,” says the San Diego photographer (Donald Miralle)

The original film was only recently scanned to create this digital version. The color palette is pale, almost otherworldly, due to the process used to transform the black-and-white negative stock into color moving pictures.

This video is "Mind Blowing" in many ways. First the models are beautiful! and second the first full length color film wasn't available until 1935